Monsoon revival hope gaining ground

PATNA: The South-West Monsoon has further advanced and is now meandering near eastern UP and it may cover the rest of Bihar within the next 72 hours.

However, there is little possibility of the monsoon becoming active or vigorous in Bihar, Jharkhand and UP at least this week till a low pressure area or an upper air cyclonic circulation is formed in the Bay of Bengal.

Though it is now over a fortnight that the onset of monsoon in both Bihar and Jharkhand had been officially announced, both the states till date have received deficient rainfall. “With no system in the Bay, there is no chance of getting any good amount of rainfall in the next 48 hours,” said Patna Met office sources.

“While Bihar has a deficient rainfall of 30%, Jharkhand has 38%. But compared to 2009, the situation is definitely better as in June last year, both the states almost recorded a deficit of over 55%. UP has a deficient rainfall of 82%,” added Met office sources.

Now advancing and meandering around eastern UP, the northern limit of the monsoon is crossing through Gaya and Raxual. The short and scattered rainfall at some intervals is all the met can predict. Humidity futher plays spoilsport. Met department officials, however, predicted some thundershowers in some districts of both Bihar and Jharkhand.

Additional director general (weather forecasting) of IMD, Pune, A B Mazumdar said, “Till now, Met scientists were expecting the low pressure area, which developed over the Bay of Bengal, to approach further and make way for monsoon in other states and become active in Bihar also. But local phenomenon changed the course of events by weakening the strength of the low pressure area. However, we are still hopeful that in July and August both northwest and northeast India will get sufficient rainfall.”

“We are also pinning our hopes on revival of this low pressure area with the help of local climatic developments in Bihar,” said weather officials, who added that delay in monsoon is less likely to affect rain expected in the following months.

In fact, weather scientists are analysing weather data gathered over 60 years to get a clearer picture of the Indian monsoon, and revise the dates given for the annual rainy season across the country.

“The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is contemplating to revise the normal onset dates for the monsoon across the country. The change in dates will happen in the near future. A committee comprising over 40 scientists has analysed the data and the dates will come into effect from next season,” added Mazumdar.